The Paris Bourse is expected to rise on Thursday morning, although investors are likely to remain cautious ahead of the publication of monthly inflation figures for the United States, the highlight of the week on the markets.

At around 8:15 a.m., the 'future' contract on the CAC 40 index - for delivery at the end of January - was up 48 points at 7482 points, heralding a positive start to the session.

After the consolidation phase that began at the start of the year, stock markets are hoping to move forward again in the next few days, thanks to economic indicators as investors like them: reassuring about the health of the economy, but not strong enough to rule out future rate cuts.

US inflation figures, to be released at 2.30pm by the Labor Department, are expected to have a major impact on market expectations regarding the Federal Reserve's monetary policy.

According to consensus, inflation in the US is expected to have fallen in December, due to falling gasoline costs and rental prices.

In its basic version, the consumer price index (CPI) is thus expected to have risen to +0.2% last month, compared with +0.3% in November.

If confirmed, this will be further proof that the disinflation process is well underway across the Atlantic", comments Christopher Dembik, Investment Strategy Advisor at Pictet AM.

Futures on US indices are forecast to open 0.2% to 0.4% higher on Wall Street, following the gains of the previous day, which saw the S&P 500 index reach a new all-time closing high.

This will be good news for the Fed, which will have a freer hand to choose the right moment to cut rates", explains the analyst.

The other hoped-for catalyst could come from the corporate sector, with the fourth-quarter earnings season kicking off tomorrow with the major US banks, led by JPMorgan, releasing their results.

According to FactSet, S&P 500 corporate earnings should have risen by 1.3% over the last three months of the year, marking a second consecutive quarter of earnings growth.

But investors will be paying particular attention to their outlook for 2024, given that the companies that have already unveiled their accounts have been rather cautious in their forecasts.

Benchmark bond yields are little changed in anticipation of the US statistics, at 4.03% for ten-year US Treasuries and 2.24% for the German Bund of the same maturity.

The dollar is down slightly against the euro ahead of the publication of the inflation report, but is up 4% against the single currency at this stage of the week.

After its bout of weakness the previous day, linked to the announcement of a modest weekly rise in US crude oil inventories last week, the oil market is back on the rise.

Brent gained 0.8% to $77.4 a barrel, while US light crude (West Texas Intermediate, WTI) gained 0.7% to $71.9.

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